Job 14

Job Continues to Argue His Case with God

¹“A human being born of a woman

is short of days and full of troubles.

²Like a flower he comes up, and he withers away;

and he flees like a shadow, but he does not last.

³Even on such a one you fix your eyes,

and you bring me into judgment with you.

⁴“Who can bring a clean thing from an unclean thing?

No one!

⁵If his days are determined, the number of his months is with you;

you have appointed his boundaries, and he cannot cross them.

⁶Look away from him, and let him desist

until he enjoys his days like a laborer.

⁷“Indeed, there is hope for a tree:

if it is cut down, then it will sprout again,

and its new shoots will not cease;

⁸though its root grows old in the earth,

and its stump dies in the dust,

⁹at the scent of water it will bud,[#Hebrew “from”]

and it will put forth branches like a young plant.

¹⁰“But a man dies, and he dwindles away;[#Hebrew “And”]

thus a human being passes away, and where is he?

¹¹As water disappears from a lake,

and a river withers away and dries up,

¹²so a man lies down, and he does not arise.[#Literally “and”]

Until the heavens are no more, they will not awaken,

and they will not be roused out of their sleep.

¹³“O that you would conceal me in Sheol,[#Literally “Who shall give”]

that you would hide me until your wrath is past,

that you would appoint a set time for me and remember me.

¹⁴If a man dies, will he live again?

All the days of my compulsory service I will wait,

until the coming of my relief.

¹⁵You would call, and I myself would answer you;[#Emphatic personal pronoun]

you would long for the work of your hand.

¹⁶For then you would count my steps,[#Hebrew “now”]

but you would not keep watch over my sin.

¹⁷My transgression would be sealed in a bag,

and you would cover over my guilt.

¹⁸“But a mountain falls; it crumbles away,[#Or “And but”]

and a rock moves away from its place.

¹⁹Water wears away stones;

its torrents wash away the soil of the earth;

so you destroy the hope of human beings.

²⁰You overpower him forever, and he passes away;

you change his countenance, then you send him away.

²¹His children may come to honor, but he does not know it;[#Hebrew “and”]

or they may become lowly, but he does not realize it.

²²He feels only the pain of his own body,[#Hebrew “his body on him”]

and his inner self mourns for him.”